Divide Arabs, Conquer Palestinians

Article excerpt

ISRAEL has everything it wants. Looking at the state of the
peace talks, Israel seems to have recouped its losses of a few
months back. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin invited Syria's leader to
meet him (the Arab leader predictably rejected the offer). Israel
seems to be offering to return Golan land to its adversary. Having
announced a peace with Syria to be imminent, Israel now informs the
world an agreement with Jordan is all but signed. Mr. Rabin halted
the killings of Israeli policemen and civilians.

How astonishing! One must now make an effort to remember that
only six months ago Israel's international standing was at an
all-time low. On Dec. 26, the Rabin government expelled 415 Gaza
residents from their homeland in an unprecedented retaliation. It
was severely censured by the United Nations and earned another
Security Council condemnation.

Across the world, especially in Arab Gulf states, support for
Palestinians escalated during the winter. The determined
Palestinian men sitting out on the South Lebanon hills became a
symbol of Israeli injustice and the enduring Palestinian will. It
won widespread support among Palestinians inside and abroad on a
scale unseen since the outset of the intifadah.

Today the expellees remain on the hillside. They may be more
comfortable during summer. They may claim to enjoy popular support.
Still, they remain expelled. Also, three Americans sit in Israeli
jails - Palestinians detained without charge or for alleged ties to
the Hamas organization. The US State Department failed to secure
their release.

Six months after Israel could barely face the world community
and Palestinians gloated over a symbolic Hamas victory, the
situation is totally different. At the end of the 10th round of
peace talks in Washington, Palestinians seem in a weaker position
than ever.

On the ground in the occupied territories, among the 2 million
people there, poverty is at a new low. Starvation, while still
rare, was unheard of before in Gaza and the West Bank. Joblessness
is the norm. Deaths of Palestinians shot by Israeli troops were 36
in May. This is the deadliest month for Palestinians in years, yet
it is barely reported in the United States press. The relentless
killing seems to have had no impact on the peace talks.

Few can imagine the deterioration of life across the occupied
territories today. The early months of the intifadah now appear
mild by comparison. The 14,000 Palestinians languishing in prison
are joined by new prisoners every night. Daily, conditions of
townspeople more closely approximate those of prisons. The closure
of the green line separating the West Bank and Gaza from Israel
proper is wreaking havoc for Palestinians. Links between the
majority of the population, living in villages and towns, and
Jerusalem, their cultural and spiritual center, are cut. …